Southern Baptists Consider 'Exit Strategy' From Public Schools

[Kadie]

Southern Baptists Consider 'Exit Strategy' From Public Schools

POSTED: 4:42 am PDT June 14, 2006


GREENSBORO, N.C. -- As concerns persist about how classrooms are handling subjects such as homosexuality and "intelligent design," some members of the nation's largest Protestant denomination want the Southern Baptist Convention to consider creating an exit strategy from public schools.

A committee at the Southern Baptists' annual gathering was scheduled to report Wednesday on a resolution that would urge the denomination to form a strategy for removing Southern Baptist children from public schools in favor of home schooling or education at private schools.

The group takes up the issue a day after it elected a new president, Frank Page. The 53-year-old pastor at First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., was supported primarily by younger pastors and others who felt marginalized by an older generation that led a conservative takeover of the church in the 1970s and 1980s.

Delegates at last year's annual meeting passed a resolution urging parents and churches to "to exercise their rights to investigate diligently the curricula, textbooks, and programs in our community schools."


"We are commanded biblically to train our children in the nurture of the Lord," said Roger Moran of Troy, Mo., who sits on the executive committee and offered the proposal with Texas author Bruce Shortt. "The public schools are no longer allowed ... to even acknowledge the God of the Bible."

more...
http://www.kcra.com/education/9367152/detail.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. If that's what they want, more power to them. The trouble is that they

will kick up a fuss over having to pay taxes that go to schools where their children aren't being educated.

[NashVegas]

4. And They'll Scream for Vouchers

..

[BR_Parkway]

5. Well, bitching about that is part of the Homosexual Agenda too - we'd all

be on the same side - ROFLMAO. Tell them that and you'd never hear another word about it!

[Hugin]

11. I suspect this is just a feeder for their alternative programs...

If you look deep enough all of these proclamations have some
sort of an exclusionary $$$ money motive.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. Bingo!

[SheilaT]

2. Part of me wants to say

Good Riddance. The public schools would be better off without such troublemakers. Unfortunately, that would lead to increased polarization of various groups in this country.

[BlooInBloo]

15. Just because stupid people WANT to be stupid...

... doesn't mean it's good for the country to let them.

Sigh.

If only people WANTED to be smart, informed, etc.

[BR_Parkway]

3. bye bye

hate it for their kids, but many of them will grow up and rebel against the strict controls that they get raised under, but maybe they'll stop trying to keep the rest of our kids from learning facts in preference to their myths

[DainBramaged]

6. Let them leave, let them leave their towns and counties too

Imagine their surprize whens da man says "you got no polize protections nows that u's reeceed from society. Can we gets you another log for the fire or some bark for the kidz to eats?

really bad Southern accent impression

In a few years, the kids will be eating their home school books because the stupid ass parents won't pay taxes for anything and the whole family will be too stupid to remain part of society. For a true definition of a Fundie, look up jackass in the dictionary.

[Ishoutandscream2]

7. Tell that to the Gideons

Who were allowed IN THE SCHOOL I WORK IN (a secondary ninth grade campus) to set up a table in the front lobby with their "little red books" containing the New Testament. For two days, the display sat there and any student or adult could pick up a free bible. Guarantee that if any of my Muslim students tried to put out literature in school, it would have been either vetoed by the superintendent or protested by the Christian fundies.

Our school doesn't promote homosexuality, and there are no postive or negative views given about intelligent design. We don't have a fucking "agenda." We're just doing the best we can to educate our children and have them ready to become responsible adults.

I'm tired of this shit. If they want to leave, let them. We do great work in my public school, and they can kiss my ass and go to their own schools. It can be there that they have their bible to be both a history and science book for the curriculum.

[LaBanty]

8. "We are commanded biblically..."

"We are commanded biblically to train our children in the nurture of the Lord," said Roger Moran of Troy, Mo., who sits on the executive committee and offered the proposal with Texas author Bruce Shortt. "The public schools are no longer allowed ... to even acknowledge the God of the Bible."

How about freedom from religion? Whatever happened to separation of church and state?

This "being commanded biblically" only applies if you subscribe to the bible, and not everyone does. Imposing this on kids amounts to child abuse, IMHO. (Don't let them formulate their own ideas - just force the bible on them.)

More Red State Fundie bullshit.

[sakabatou]

33. People like those want the U.S. to turn into a

psuedo-theocracy.

[Hugin]

9. That's enough! I'm homechurching my kids...

I mean what do I need besides a Bible and a lot of opinions.

[Chipper Chat]

10. More and more I see us splitting into two countries.

The south and northern bible-belt states are becoming increasingly regressive. Nothing but a theocracy will satisfy the fundies. The gay-bashing marriage protection failed only because northeastern MODERATE REPUBLICANS voted it down. Is it time for the mason-dixon line to reactivate? Will a new liberal country with freedom for all emerge? I want to live there. What do you say New York, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire (dragged kicking and screaming), Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, the new state of Washington DC, West Virginia (defectors can move south), Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, nothern Indiana (except for fundie Howard and Madison counties), Iowa are you with us?, California, Oregon, Wash State, Harry Reid's Nevada, Hawaii - whew! Sounds great.
Bush can be president for life of the existing "Jesusland." No public schools - all parochial. No gays - they will be exiled to the "pagan north." Kenneth Blackwell can be secretary of dirty tricks. No need for elections. Jery Falwell and Dr. Dobson will appoint all positions. No need for courts. Anyone accused of a crime gets put to death immediately. Nancy Grace - bring your hood!

[badgerpup]

19. Could you put Montana in there please?

I know that technically it's red, but the population is small, and there's lots of room for blue people...
and it really IS a lovely place...honest!

[Chipper Chat]

28. Sure - welcome Montana.

That would save us from crossing unfriendly Alberta when going west.
Oops I forgot about that little piece of Idaho. Cheney's borderguards would shoot any libs trying to get through. What would you call those illegals? Dry-backs?

[raccoon]

26. And the Blue people in the Red states can be relocated to

a non-Jesusland state!

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Left Alone! Finally!

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Good riddance to bad rubbish

By leaving the public school system, they will (hopefully) stop trying to shove their superstitions down everyone else's throats. Gone will be the attempts to stifle critical thinking. Gone will be the attempts to replace science with creationism. Gone will be the attempts to shut down meaningful sex education lest little Johnny actually learn something that counters what God said.

I am looking forward to it, and hope other Talibangelicals follow suit soon.

[MadHound]

14. "Southern Baptists consider how best to dumb down their kids, country"

Seriously, while I fully agree with the majority sentiment expressed here of "Hell, let them take their kids out and let them be dumb", I still don't think we should fall for this.

First off, at least in my state, and I'm sure many others, state education money is paid out on a per pupil basis, the fewer kids you have, the less you get paid. Also, and perhaps this is the scarier part, is that the SBs are going to work the system with NCLB in order to not only transfer their child to a fundy school, but their going to get paid to do so, as the overwhelming standards of NCLB continue to knock out school after school.

And finally, if we allow this trend to continue, we will wind up with a really dumbed down society, a mistake that we'll all wind up paying for, through the nose.

The only thing that I think could slow these people down is the repeal of NCLB. If you take away the money, I think most of these fundies would leave their kid in school. Another reason why we need a Democratic majority in Congress this fall, since NCLB is up for renewal next year.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Hey! I said what you said! Just shorter. LOL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1424773&mesg_id=1425028

[MadHound]

17. LOL, yep, that's me,

Just a pontificating wind bag that drones on and on:evilgrin:

[BlooInBloo]

18. Nah - yours was fine. I just like to keep it short so that...

... people who want to deliberately mis-interpret me have ample opportunity to do so. :evilgrin:

[johnnie]

20. Why the hell are they wasting their time anyway?

The rapture is coming soon and all that education isn't going to mean shit.

[Sgent]

21. I don't have a *huge* problem with private schools

other than the fact that they are segregated by nature.

I have a much larger problem with "home schooling". I can't speak to other parts of the country, but I know of at least a 1/2 dozen home schoolers in my area which never recieved the slightest bit of tutoring at home.

I also know of parents who run "classes" for other kids, at this point its not looking like homeschooling IMHO.

[spinbaby]

22. Don't paint all home schoolers with the same brush

We home schooled our oldest for a couple of years--he was hyperactive and I didn't want to medicate or put him in special ed. He went back to school way ahead of his peers and went on to graduate from college with a 4.0 GPA. And no, he's not anti-social.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. These particular southern baptists...

are leaving public education to avoid "homosexuality" and "evolution." So we can assume that their home-schools have little to do with schooling.

[LeftyMom]

23. I know of a lot of public schooled kids who got daycare with textbooks

and no real education. :shrug:

If you're looking for homeschooling to look just like school, chances are that you're out of luck (though your changes of seeing something very school like are actually best with fundie families, they like the structure and heirarchy, they just want thier own priorities taught for the most part.) The question isn't whether the kids get tutoring obvious to an outsider, it's whether or not they learn. Both school-like and non-conventional homeschooling methodologies have a better track record for producing educated and self-sufficient adults than public institutional schooling.

[Sgent]

31. Who said anything about outsider

3 of these kids I'm related to. Another 2 I was a godfather too.

They all were woefully uneducated compared to their peers. Homeschooling without verification of learning is regressing our country 150 years when there was no expectation of education. Sure, many will get educated, but too many won't because its too hard or too expensive (from the parents point of view).

BTW -- I feel no differently about public schools that aren't working. They should be shut down.

[bmbmd]

25. In Texas, they want to take their kids out of public education

but they still want them to play football on the local squad. There have, in fact, been lawsuits to force public school athletic departments to accept home-schooled and private-schooled kiddos.

[StellaBlue]

27. Au revoir, fuckers!

[Book Lover]

29. Then you people had better take a good look at how the Catholic Church

ran and runs their schools. Talk to a few families living in parishes that have had to close their schools (or the parishes themselves that close). Talk to a few administrators of those schools (don't worry; they tend not to be religious anymore - you won't go up in smoke for talking to a priest) to find out what laundry list of funding problems they have. For one bleeding minute, take the long-term view of your problem!

[ChickMagic]

30. If I remember correctly,

Benjamin Franklin supported public education as a necessity for a democracy
to survive. It exposes kids of all races, religions, economic status, etc.
so they would understand that we're all Americans regardless of our differences.
So, these Southern Baptist bastards are against Ol' Ben and democracy.